A Walk Through The Word

Deuteronomy 33:1-29, Luke 13:1-21, Psalms 78:65-72, Proverbs 12:25

Today is the ninth day of April welcome to the daily audio Bible I am Brian it is a joy and a privilege to be here with you today around the Global Campfire as we come in out of whatever’s going on and move toward ending another one of our weeks together. So, let’s dive in. This week we’ve been reading from the Christian Standard Bible. And we are in the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. We will conclude the book of Deuteronomy and move into the next book the book of Joshua tomorrow. And, so, like those of you using the Daily Audio Bible app, if you’ve been checking off your days, yeah, since the beginning of the year, checking off the days as we…as we listen to them, as we move through them, then we will have completed the very first section of the Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. And, so, we’ll all get our badges, we’ll all get our badges that just kinda helps us keep track of the progress that we’re making. And we can look at all of that progress in the achievements section so that we can see, you know, how much of the Bible, how much of the Old Testament we’ve finished, how much of the New Testament, how much of the whole Bible we’ve concluded and what the different sections that we will be concluding are. So, be aware of that and check it out. I’m looking…I always look forward…so…since we’ve gotten them last year. So, I’m looking forward to reaching the first milestone on our journey this year. So, that’s coming up tomorrow, but this is today. And, so, we have a full reading in the book of Deuteronomy. And today we will read Deuteronomy chapter 33.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today Jesus makes commentary on some tragedies that were like local tragedies that had everybody talking, the kinds of stuff that would be on the news, the kinds of stuff that would be posted on social media, the news, the news that had traveled around the countryside and that people were talking about. And they were tragic events and so people were wondering about God’s judgment on the…the people involved. And we do this kind of stuff still. You know, if there’s a tragic whether event then it’s not gonna take too long before people are saying or posting God’s judgment on that land or you know for whatever…or if tragedy strikes it’s really really easy to claim God’s judgment upon those things or those individuals or we can even just look at people who are suffering and think…well…they’re not living right so of course, you know, this is, you know, God smashing them. We…we can either actually think those things or sort of subtly think those things. And Jesus spoke clearly today about whether or not these kinds of things are the judgment of God. And, so, since we have these thoughts once in a while when we see things happening in the world and wonder about them then we should pay attention to Jesus. And, so, there were two situations. And one of them you can totally understand why people everywhere would be talking and the other one, you can understand why people in the region would be talking. So, there were some Jewish people Galileans, so from the region that Jesus spent most of his life and ministry in. And the Galilee region, this was known for zealotry, this was known for like anti-Roman rhetoric and people that would cause mayhem, like zealots, people that would, you know, try to do guerrilla type tactics to disrupt Rome. This had been going on for a while. And, so, the region was on the radar for the zealotry and some Galilean Jews that were thought to be zealots…and we can call them zealots in a really really nice way but the Romans wouldn’t have thought about them as zealots per se. Like if we want to use modern vernacular they would’ve looked at them as terrorists because of what they were doing. And they were on the receiving end of it. And it ended up that they’re chasing these people and they flee to the temple complex and the Roman soldiers then invade the temple complex of God to get these zealots and they get em’ and they take them out and their blood is spilled in the temple complex where sacrifices to the Lord are happening. And, so, that would for sure get people talking. The other thing was a pool in Jerusalem. The tower in Siloam. It fell down. Like it get became unstable and toppled and killed 18 people. So, if we want to take a step back and just in some sort of way contextualize this so with a more modern understanding, we can picture this. We would just say people had become obsessed with these stories, right? People were obsessed with the news and trying to decipher the news and contemplate and discuss the news and interpret the news and even muse about God’s involvement in the news. I think that’s something that we could say that that’s some…like that’s understandable, that’s familiar. And, so, these people are wondering, were the people that died, were they greater sinners? Did they deserve this kind of punishment? And that also kind of sounds familiar. Like these are the kinds of things that can get talked about and even obsessed over. So, I quote from Jesus then in response to the scenario. Jesus said, “do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galilean’s because they suffered these things or those 18 that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed? Do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?” His response to both of those situations is this, “no. I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as well.” So, Jesus’ commentary on these scenarios is that, no, these people were not more sinful, they were not judged. That’s not why the tragedy happened. We can obsess about the story and try to dissect the story and throw up all kinds of talking heads on the television get all kinds of experts. We can do all this but underneath it all is something far more important. We’re all headed toward death if we don’t repent. That’s permanent. So, in many ways Jesus is pulling people away from all of the fanfare of the very glossy high-profile stories that can steel days and weeks of our lives as we obsess over them. We can miss the greater challenge of keeping our eyes on our own lives and being aware of the terrain of our own hearts, being responsible for our own relationship, owning our relationship with God and not focusing all of our attention on everything and everyone else. We have been given this life to steward. This is the life we should be stewarding.

Prayer:

Jesus as we approach the end of another week we confess it’s very easy for us to deflect, to deflect blame, to get distracted by all kinds of other things so that we don’t have to face ourselves in the mirror, so that we don’t have to actually open our hearts and see what’s there, so that we don’t actually have to do the work of opening ourselves to You and spending time with You and allowing You in, into the basement, into the attic, into all the places of our hearts that motivate all of the actions of our lives. And, so, we’re taking this on board. We invite Your Holy Spirit to help us to continually consider this every time that we’re pulled to an assumption or an opinion about something that’s going on that’s juicy or that we just want to waste hours on. Help us to return, to return to our own hearts, to invite You to speak to us about our own lives, to allow the voice of wisdom to give us the counsel about the way we should go as opposed to trying to figure out the way everybody else should go and interpret everybody else’s action. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

James the schoolteacher from LA you were the first DABber I ever met in person. I had been praying for you and your wife to be blessed with a child. God answered your prayers. I got to meet your wife and your first child. My heart is broken for you right now. I just want you to remember that you’re loved and cared for. My stepson is going through the exact same issues that you are right now. I want to give you Isaiah 43:2. When you pass through these waters of threatening divorce remember I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flames scorch you. Isaiah 43:2. James hang on. Hang on and welcome back to the DABbers. We missed you. Don’t be far. Keep in touch. This is Karen from Hemet. I don’t know if you remember me reaching out to you at one of the meetings that Brian and Jill did in…in the LA area. God bless you. I’ll be keeping you in my prayers.

Hey DAB family this is T from Florida. This is my first time calling but I am definitely a longtime listener. I’ve been listening…I think I’ve been tuned in since like 2006 maybe 07. It’s been a long time but to be honest I fall on and then I fall off and then back and forth. So…but I did feel compelled to call today because of James from LA. I think he goes by the name James the teacher or something like that. I can’t remember but he needs prayer and I’ve been praying for you James. You were saying that you’ve been having suicidal thoughts and that you’ve befoer…you’ve had them before but they are really bad now because of what you’re going through in your marriage and you know, I’m just…I wanna send love your way and…and to tell you, you know, you’re needed, you’re so important. God created you for a reason. He put you here on this earth because you are a part of his family. You’re His child and He adores you. He took the time to create you and put you together and knit you so perfectly and intricately and He blessed you with children who need you. So, we’re praying for you. We love you and we know I’m looking forward to hearing your praise report from you. I’ll continue to pray for you and for everybody who…who comes on here asking for prayer requests. Love you guys. Talk to you soon. Bye.

Daily Audio Bible family this is Troy in Amarillo TX. Please, please pray for my mom. She was in a really bad car accident yesterday, Easter Sunday and is not doing very good at all. I need prayers that she can recover from this. Thank you so much.

Hi family this is Happy to be in Colorado. I’ve called it just two other times. I’m a long-time listener but I have just started calling recently because my marriage is in crisis. If you followed the DAB friends on Facebook, you might have seen my post. I’m just so desperate for your prayers. I’m so desperate for hundreds of people to be shouting out to the heavens on behalf of me and my husband. My husband Chris has said that he is done with God, he’s walking away. A lot of that is just, you know, he’s not happy with where our life is, and he blames God and feels like God has cursed him. And with that he is ready to end our marriage. And I’m just so broken. Like I’ve never felt the depth of pain like this before. It’s excruciating and I just would really covet your prayers for Chris.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Jermaine the brother whose incarcerated in New York. I just want to pray for him for strength. I want to pray for him for guidance. I want to pray for him for the victory in whatever the challenge is that got him there so that when…when he’s free and while…while he is free in a month that God can bless him tremendously. I want to pray for Susie. I want to pray for her and her and her husband who…who…who have the orphans in Haiti. I want to pray for the little baby Elijah, that like a miracle for his little brain in his little life. I wanna pray for also for James, our teacher and her wife. His wife is asking for a divorce. Don't…don’t just take it as…as…as cash James. I want you to continue to pray that God will help her to see what she has in you and that the two of you can fix it. We want to pray for a miracle. God can still work miracles and no matter what hold on because the babies need you. And you have a plan, God has a plan for your life and…and He can’t fulfill it if…if the enemy uses you to do anything that is rash. Just continue to trust Him. I’ve been through a divorce myself and I know how challenging it can be but…but I know one thing, that God can bring us through. I just wanted to say that to you my brother and encourage you. And I want to pray for…for…for those who are going through depression. I want to pray for those who are looking for jobs and I want to pray for those who are looking for spouses and…and want God to bless them with a spouse that is…that is right for them. Father we just lift you up we praise your name we magnify your name. Lord you have your way Lord in the name of Jesus you have your way in the…in the…

Deuteronomy 32:28-52, Luke 12:35-59, Psalms 78:56-64, Proverbs 12:24

Today is the 8^th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today. It’s wonderful to be here every day. It’s wonderful to have this place. Like, in my heart and my mind it’s a safe place. It’s a Global Campfire, right? It’s a place we can come and let it go and just…yeah…it’s a safe place. So, glad to be here with you today, take the next step forward and allow the Scriptures to speak and to inform our lives in the paths that we are on and help us to interpret our lives. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible. We are rounding out the book of Deuteronomy. Right now, we’ll pick up…just so that we can understand like what we’re about to read…we’re picking up in the middle of a song. So, we’re picking up with the lyrics of a song. And this song was given by God to Moses and this song is ultimately supposed to be a witness to the people of Israel against them because God has foretold to Moses that, although the people have been instructed well, they will remain rebellious and when they do get into the land and they do rebel they will have to face the consequences. And, so, that’s what this song is about. And we’ll conclude that song today and continue forward. Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 28 through verse 52.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s go into the gospel of Luke. I quote Jesus. “I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze!” What is going on here? This is one of if not the most exasperated moments captured in the Bible for…in the life of Jesus. He goes on to say, “do you think I came to bring peace on the earth? No. I tell you, but rather division.” Hmmm. So, how does this work with our tidy little Sunday school stories? Like, how does this work? What’s is going on here? The seems like a departure in posture. Jesus says, “they will be divided father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Fascinating! What can do that in…in a widespread sort of way? Well, I can think of a couple things that can do that, one that we all know because we’ve all borne witness that this can happen. Father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – politics, right? So, we shouldn’t look at what Jesus is saying and go like, “whoa. How is He so divisive? What’s going on here? There’s nothing in the world that could be that divisive to just shred families wholesale.” Yeah, we’ve seen it plenty. It’s very, very possible. The other thing that can do this that I know of and probably more true to what Jesus is saying - the truth can do this. We were just talking and even praying for eyes to see and ears to hear so that we might seek first God’s kingdom yesterday. To see God’s kingdom at work and participate in it does require that our eyes be open. Once that happens though you can’t see the same. You can’t un-see what you’re seeing. You’re seeing with new eyes. You’re becoming aware of the presence of the Lord everywhere, which means that you’re seeing the darkness and the evil lurking everywhere way more clearly and you’re realizing you had been participating in all of that, but now you can’t unsee. Your reality has begun to shift. You are being transformed. You become a light bearer. Wherever you go so goes the light. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness doesn’t comprehend it and squirms into the shadows because what is in the dark does not want to be exposed to the light. And, so, it retaliates and attacks the light bearer. This is what Jesus is talking about and He’s saying I wish this fire were already burning because the fire that He’s talking about isn’t a fire to like destroy planet Earth, it’s a holy fire that eradicates deception. It burns away the false or as Jesus said, “the truth will set you free.” The thing is this is somewhat fundamental to our faith. We know that transformation is the goal, is the process, that we be transformed into the likeness of the Savior, that we become what we call Christlike, which is…which is like Christ. And when we look Jesus in the Gospels we can see clearly where we may be on that path and we can see clearly where we are nothing like Christ. Probably…I’m thinking  “should I say this”, but probably if we were to say…I don’t know…examine the last six months of our social media posts. That might give us insight into ourselves. That might give us clues into what we’re trying to say and compare that to the life of Christ that we are supposed to be living. And it’s funny how all of this stuff can get so interlocked where we can feel like, “well…I’m posting the truth on social media and I’m getting persecuted or other people think they’re posting the truth but it’s my job to correct them and persecute them.” And, so, we can get all kind of wound up into this religious fervor over certain things but if we would step back these are not the things Jesus deals with. This is not what He’s talking about. I used to think that the world can be changed through a song. It’s what drew me to music. I spent an awful lot, years looking for that song. That song does not exist. A song can change somebody’s world, but not typically the world. A social media post isn’t going to change the world. A radically transformed life that is full of light and life and good news, that can change a lot of things. There are 2 billion people on this planet that believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he’s the Savior of the world. That is an incredible amount of potential for light in the dark. The most interesting thing about all that Jesus is saying here, because we can espouse the rhetoric and say like this is an aggressive move forward for God’s kingdom by force and I need to get on board and so I’m just gonna light the torch and set things on fire. The most interesting thing is that the fire that we’re talking about here, the fire is love. Jesus says this is how we will be known as His disciples. It’s love that’s the force that is more powerful than the darkness. It’s love that transforms us into the image of Christ. It’s love that will let Jesus allow himself to be executed by His own creation. Love is the thing, according to the Scriptures that conquers all. If we are doing things in love in the name of Jesus then we don’t have to be confused about why the darkness would be attempting to retaliate. But if we’re just using the same rhetoric and tactics that…that are prevalent, we’re wasting energy. When we are literally doing what we’re doing in profound respect and awe and love for Christ and in profound understanding that love is the way of his kingdom then we don’t have to be confused about whether we’re doing the right thing. Jesus is telling us what’s gonna happen so that we’re not confused and so that we understand that we are in the battle if we want to call it a battle. We are bringing light and love into this world, which is how we were created to live. And, so, let’s live into that and invite the Holy Spirit into that because that’s the voice we need. I can sit here and say all kinds of words but my words…I mean…I am a fellow pilgrim on the same path, but I know that I know that the Holy Spirit is present upon this earth and is calling to anyone who will listen. And I know from the Scriptures that wisdom is upon this earth and she is calling to anyone who will listen. Let’s listen. Let’s listen and obey.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come. Again, give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we might wake up, that it’s time to wake up, that our slumber is over, that this is not purposeless or aimless. We are here to be transformed so that we can be ambassadors for Your kingdom upon this earth, representing You upon this earth so that others may cease their slumber. Come Jesus we pray in Your mighty name. Amen.

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can dial 877-942-4253 or just hit the hotline button that’s in the app, the little red button up at the top.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi this is Shelly In Oklahoma walking my dogs on Easter morning out in the Woods. It’s beautiful. Wanted to call in because of the prayer request from Momma’s Little Rock in Arkansas. And your prayer request for prayers because your grieving about your mother touched my heart. Just…just made me in so much pain for you. I lost my mother five years ago this month and it is still very difficult. But I wanted to tell you that while I was listening to your call God just prompted me about a message that Brian had for us several years ago and it was about little by little, that when the Israelites left Egypt, they weren’t ready to be in the promised land. They were…they were…they had only known to be slaves. But little by little God taught them how to take care of themselves, how to protect themselves, how…how to become free people, how to…how to provide for themselves. And I think that’s something that you might want to give some thought to, that you don’t have to know everything your mother knew to get by in this world and you will grieve her and ache for her probably for the rest of your life as I do for my mother. But little by little it will get a little less painful and you will find your way. I’m praying for you and I love you. This is Shelly in Oklahoma.

Hello, my wonderful DAB family this is Rosie calling back. I’m sorry I’m calling back but I need prayer. I’m still having a lot of problems with my son. I haven’t seen him since July 11^th of last year or hear his voice. And he had covid in November and they still told me that I had to quarantine even though I hadn’t seen him because I saw his son. I was around his son. But his son didn’t have covid either. But anyway, I believe that he’s going through a change of life or having a midlife crisis or something I’m not sure but he’s not the same son that I raised and he’s just totally different. And for one thing he’s away from God and I think he’s still angry because his dad died when he was 13. And we were believing that his dad was going to be healed and he wasn't…well…he got the ultimate healing and I believe my son has been angry ever since at God. So, I think that’s what he needs prayer for. And this past week has been a tough week because my husband has…well…he went home to be with the Lord 28 years ago and every time during the…this part of the year I struggle and I would think after 28 years I would…it wouldn’t be so hard but it’s not as hard as it was but I still, you know, struggle with it. Anyway, I would really appreciate your prayers. I love you.

Hi, it’s Donna from California and heard a prayer request, this is actually April 5^th from James. And first I wanted to say I…I…I could call into everybody about everybody’s prayer requests. I feel like it's…it’s drawn out of me to do that. I just…I want to respond to each and every one of them. Of course, that would be a lot of calling in, so I won’t attempt that but please know I do lift up your prayer…prayer with each on one when I hear it. But James yours really touched me in particular. Listening to it could definitely hear his pain. Divorce just rips people apart. I’ve been through one. I know lots of people who’ve been through one or more. Understand that it just…it brings you to that point where…yeah…you would just rather not have to go on. I’m glad that you have a safety plan. Think of your children. I’m sure that you are. And I…I just…I…let’s pray. Let’s just pray. Lord heavenly Father I lift up James to You. He’s in a world of pain. His wife is asking for a divorce. The word is…is just so horrible and ugly. Pray that You would just…you touch her heart. If…if there is any way that…and there is with you…that things can be reconciled I pray for that in Your holy name. Amen.

Good morning DAB family this is Paula the child advocate from the LA area calling. It is the Monday after Easter and I sure hope you all had a lovely joyous Easter as I did, celebrating with my family. I’m calling this morning because I heard James the teacher from LA call in. James it’s been a long time. I’ve never forgotten you. I heard you right from the beginning many years ago when you started calling in. And I was so happy to hear your voice but saddened to hear why you were calling in, that your wife wanted a divorce. And I just wanted to let you know James that you and your wife will be in my prayers. And I know that you know that God can do anything, all things. So, I’m going to be praying that you and your wife can reconcile, and the Lord will change her heart. And I’m happy to hear that you have a safety plan in place. James you are so important to all of us and to your wife and to everyone in your life. And, so, I’m happy to hear that. Please know that I love you and we all of you. And one more message to the young woman who called in that lost her mother. Dear girl I know what that’s like, most of us do. And I think to myself, how wonderful and fortunate we were that we had such wonderful mothers that we miss them so much because working with foster children I see how many of them have mothers that are not the type like our mothers, you know, that maybe they don’t miss them as much because their mothers were not as good to them as our mothers. So, please know that I’m praying for you and that one day your heart will not be as heavy. Bless you all DAB family. I love you. I listen to your prayers. I pray for you. Paula from LA. Bye for now.

Good morning this is Carlos __ from Brooklyn. I called a couple times and I’ve been listening for more than 10 years to Brian. Please I need you. I need all of your prayers. I have Covid. Now my wife has Covid. My…my daughter __ have covid, my grandson Isaiah got Covid, my grandson Elijah got Covid. Please, please ask the Lord to forgive me __. I need you. I need your prayers please. Please pray for me. May the Lord take away this covid from us. O, please Lord I ask in Jesus’ name. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible. Thank you.

Deuteronomy 31:1-32:27, Luke 12:8-34, Psalms 78:32-55, Proverbs 12:21-23

Today is the 7^th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is awesome to be here with you today ready to take that next step forward as we move through the center of the week. And we are rounding the corner on the book of Deuteronomy as well. A few more days and we will conclude the Torah, Deuteronomy being the last sayings of Moses, the last three discourses of Moses. And, so, we’re…we’re kind of reaching the conclusion and then we’ll be saying goodbye to Moses. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse one through 32 verse 27.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today Jesus is addressing a specific topic, essentially like…like the antidote for anxiety, the cure for worry. And we should like perk up right there and say, “yup. I’m listening. You’ve got my attention. I deal with that.” And we all do to some degree or another and I’ve got my hand raised as well. So, we should perk up. And actually, the way that He speaks about it, it’s a very, very famous passage that kinda concludes, “seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.” And, so, we’ve heard this before likely. But let’s kinda look at the story here. Let’s look at the context and walk through it and see if we can’t get this close enough to home that we can carry it with us, that it can become part of the soil of our hearts. So, at first Jesus is talking about not worrying about how you should defend yourself or what you should say if you’re hauled before the synagogue leaders or the authorities. He’s having a conversation about acknowledging Him. If we acknowledge him before people, then He will acknowledge us but if we will deny Him before people then…then He will deny us before the angels of God. This is what He’s talking about. And then He’s saying don’t worry if this leads basically to your arrest or to your interrogation of some sort. The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say. So, that’s where this whole thing begins. This is the lesson that He’s teaching. And then as the narrative in the gospel of Luke goes somebody interrupts that. Somebody interrupts that conversation and yells out from the crowd, “teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” So, this person, this unnamed person is like trying to hijack the whole thing that Jesus is teaching, trying to hijack this and get his…his wish accomplished from the Lord. The reason that he’s a part of the crowd, which is a self-serving thing. And that leads Jesus to say, “who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Ironically, this guy’s request to the Lord Jesus, it sounds kinda like our prayers, right? “Can you tell my brother to do this…can you tell my sister to do this thing? Can you move this obstacle out of my way? Can you move this person out of my way? Can you flood me with this and take that away?” It’s these kinds of issues that seem to have become huge things in our lives, but they are also essentially divorced from our posture toward God, like the posture of God in all things, His kingdom in all things. This request is a very, very pointed request about something this guy wants done but isn’t necessarily the will of the Lord or that the Lord even wants to be involved in it. Because the Lord said, “friend, who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And then Jesus continued on, like He always does and exposed what’s really going on. “Watch out”, and I’m quoting Jesus, “watch out and be on guard against all greed because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.” Now the lay of the land is starting to pave its way toward what Jesus said.  Jesus got interrupted from a teaching to be hauled into a domestic issue that was an attempt to hijack the whole situation. And he said, “no. That’s not what we’re doing here.” And then He calls out the greed that’s motivating this and then He exposes the greed by saying, “life isn’t just about what you have, about your stuff.” And then as the narrative goals He told a story to illustrate what He was trying to say. And in this story a person who was wealthy had a productive piece of land and he didn’t have…actually his abundance was so great that he didn’t know where to store everything. And, so, he decided he’s gonna tear down his barns and build new barns and store his grain and then after that, after he gets that project done then he’ll say to himself, “I have many goods stored up for many years. I’ll take it easy. I’ll eat, I’ll drink and enjoy myself.” Can we just say that that’s generally the way we live too? Like, “okay. I’m gonna do my best in my working years. I’m gonna try to save up and try to build into retirement and try to work toward that place. There’s gonna come a day that I’m gonna have enough and then I’m gonna be able to stop working and then I’ll…then I’ll stop and enjoy myself and enjoy life and take it easy.” That might sound like a decent plan, but in Jesus story He continues on, “God looks at that person and says, you fool, This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you prepared whose will they be? Then Jesus says that’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” So, in other words in Jesus’ story this rich man decides he’s gotta make more room for more stuff. And, once he has all his stuff in order than he’s going to enjoy life. The thing that the rich person who’s made these plans doesn’t know is that he won’t make it that far. He’s…his life is required of him now. He should’ve probably lived it while he could have instead of spending his whole life preparing to finally live his life. You see how this stuff starts sounding familiar. It’s like were reading of very very relevant current story even though it’s a couple thousand years old because people have been motivated in the same ways for a very very long time. We just have different customs and clothes, but our motive are the same. So, one of the things that begins to emerge here is that all of the frantic activity that we expend on trying to arrange for certain securities. And it’s not that securities…like that’s not the point. The point is that we have lost our tethering to what God is speaking and then the collaboration that we have in life with God, the collaboration and the relationship that will bring us all that we ever will need physically, mentally or spiritually. And rather we focus on one thing, trying to care for what is most near around us, trying to protect ourselves. And the more that we accumulate then the more that we have to manage and maintain. And as that expands, and we’re sort of like looking more and more prosperous than what we have is just more and more work that brings more and more anxiety and then that idea of actually getting to live someday gets pushed further and further away until we push life away and reach the end of life and all we did was arrange for life but never lived it. We simply lived with the worry and anxiety. We were just only ever preparing for things. That’s the context for how we get to Jesus’s famous words. And now I want to quote Jesus famous words. I just want Jesus words to be Jesus words instead of me trying to say them in different way. I just want them to be what they are because they’re clear. And now that we have this context, we should be able to locate ourselves in the story. And, so, we need to hear from Jesus. And this is what He says to that kind of scenario. “I’m telling you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or about the body, what you will wear. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don’t sow, they don’t reap. They don’t have a storeroom or a barn. Yet, God feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than birds? Can any of you add a single moment to his life by worrying? If then you’re not able to do, even a little thing why are you worrying about the rest? Consider how the wildflowers grow. They don’t labor. They don’t spin thread. And yet I’m telling you, even Solomon in all his splendor wasn’t adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass, which is in the field today and gets thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more do you think He’ll do for you? You of little faith. Don’t strive for what you should eat and for what you should drink. Don’t be anxious. For the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things. But your father knows that you need them. Seek His kingdom and these things will be provided for you. Don’t be afraid little flock. Your Father delights to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money bags for yourselves that won’t grow old an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” I don’t feel like I need to say that in different words. I think we just leave it there. I experience anxiety just like the rest of everybody else and worry and all of the things that are human on this planet. I get sucked into all the different vortexes like everybody else. Like it’s so easy to get hijacked all the time when everything is demanding our attention, and everything is telling us there’s a problem and we need to spend money to solve it. Like at some point maybe Jesus is telling the truth, you don’t have to be involved in all of that. Your Father already knows. You can seek first the kingdom and everything you need will be given to you. Which begs the question, then how do we seek the kingdom? How do we seek a kingdom that is apparently in and among us but is invisible? Like I think that that journey begins in the same way that Jesus has been telling us since we cracked open the book on January 1^st - open your eyes, open your ears. Make that a priority, that you begin to cultivate the ways to see God’s kingdom at work. Then we realize, O it’s not invisible at all. It’s everywhere if I’m looking for tr. See, we need to remember the concepts that we’ve learned in the Old Testament. There is clean and there is unclean. And what is clean is godly. There is darkness and there is light and that which is of the light is of God. There is love and there is indifference and God is love. We can see if we will open our eyes. And once we begin see…even if it’s just one thing, that’s where the kingdom is then that’s where we head. This kingdom is all over the place and it is within us and it is our job to reveal it by living it. We are the example. And when all we do is live our lives from crisis to crisis and anxiety attack to anxiety attack, and worry to worry, are we living? Is the abundant life of the gospel? Maybe we need to realize that letting go of all of the things that keep consuming us and opening our eyes and ears to seek God’s kingdom first gives us a completely different perspective and a completely different way to be. Let’s think about that. Let’s meditate upon that. This is important. Like, this isn’t like some nice metaphor or some nice sweet Christian concept. These are the words of the Savior. This is His advice on how to be here. This is how it’s supposed to look. What downside…I say this so often…what’s the downside here? Because we’re already full of anxiety and worry and we’re already considerably distracted. So, what’s the downside? If it doesn’t work, we’re just no worse off. If it does work, then we have eyes to see perspective and clarity on the path.

Prayer:

Jesus…O Jesus we need You in this. We see how You are in the world. Like we see this in the narrative of the Gospels and it’s so intriguing and so compelling and yet even when we claim we’re trying to be Christlike, if we’re honest we are consumed by the things of the world. And You’re just saying, “open Your eyes. There’s another way to see. There’s a real way to see. Help us. Help us God to open our eyes and ears that we might see and seek first Your kingdom. We pray this in Your mighty name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it’s where you find what’s going on around here. It’s how to get connected.

And that’s done in the Community section. It’s where you go to go deeper on this journey.

There are many resources for going deeper in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check it out. Wander around, browse, get connected in any way that you can.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible that can be done at the website or in the app as well. If the mission that we share in common that we call the Global Campfire, this mission to bring God’s word read fresh every day and delivered freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm that step-by-step day by day journey that we are on as we…well…as we come around the Global Campfire every day and hear the Scriptures spoken over us. If that is life-giving to you, if that has made any difference in your world than thank you for being life-giving. Thank you for your partnership. So, there’s the link on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can Hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello, my Daily Audio Bible family this is Joy Bubble from Washington. I want to call and give Mattie who called in the other day a little bit of encouragement. First of all, that is amazing. Great job at being at your last semester of grad school. That is an incredible accomplishment. I’m a student myself so I totally understand the feeling of being spread thin and kind of having a lot going on and feeling overwhelmed and I just wanted to encourage you. Philippians 1:6. I pray for you being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And just wanted to pray for you. Lord I pray for Mattie and I thank You for all that she’s worked so hard to accomplish. I pray that You will just fill of her cup and give her joy, the joy of her Salvation, and I pray that You’ll renew her spirit and give her the strength to carry on and to finish strong. And I pray that You will just be with her and give her the community that she so deeply longs for that has been difficult to come by during these times Father God. I pray that You will just touch her heart and that You will be with her and we love You and we praise You and we’re thankful…we’re so thankful for Your faithfulness and everything that You do for us and I pray that You’ll just continue walking with each and every one of us and show us Your faithfulness today. We love You and we praise You in Your name Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah. Amen.

Hi DABbers this is Emily of Jim and Emily formerly of Texas of and of Adabe of LA of Texas and currently of Cardiff and first I want to thank China for what she said the other day when she spoke because that was right when she talked about transfiguration and showing God’s glory and that was right before I was going to my stepfather’s funeral. A lot of you have been praying for my mom Jane and for Dudley her partner. And he passed away on March 10^th of cancer in the hospital peacefully. And now my sister Sarah and my nephew Garreth who don’t know the Lord, in fact who are very anti-Christian, are out here to help my mother pack up and go back to California and she leaves the end of this month. And this is very hard for me because we’ve tried to show her Jesus over the past year, especially in this pandemic this past year and a half and she still is so stubborn and she’s 89 years old. And, so, I’m asking you. I heard Victoria soldier pray and I thought please, please pray, please pray for my mom. Please pray for me Emily. I have ADHD and my rejection sensitive dysphoria just gets in the way. So, pray for my family guys. Pray for me to shine that trans figurative love of Jesus to my family. Thank you.

Good afternoon DAB family it is so wonderful to…just to listen to everyone. I’m Roxanne from Greenville NC. It’s probably my third time calling in. I just want to say thank you to all of you who I get to hear encourage and pray for others. And I’m just so thankful to God for this new family. Father God I thank you for each one that calls in. Even though I don’t know everyone Lord, I haven’t met them Lord, I thank you that this is my family, that we can encourage and be there for each other, that we would just continue to love on one another, continue to encourage one another. We thank you Lord that you brought us together as a family. Lord it’s Saturday April 3^rd and we are in between as Brian has discussed. And Lord we’re just so grateful to be able to celebrate the risen King on Sunday. Happy Easter to everyone. Lord I just continue to just thank you so much. Just…all I have is gratitude. And I’m continuing to pray for Victor, for the man who called in for his friend Victor on the ventilator. We just continue to pray for God to be his lungs and to be his expectorant to remove the pneumonia and for Mattie. God is going to continue to do a marvelous thing in you and just surrender your heart and everything will be OK. Thank you all. I love you guys. Have a happy Easter. In Jesus’ name I pray for everything. Amen.

Hey guys this is Sunny in Florida. It’s been a while since I called. Just wanted to give an update on my wife’s situation. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. We went through two cycles or types of treatments of chemotherapy and didn’t really completely work. So, we’re looking at another option. And, yeah, it’s a big decision. And, so, I would just ask for prayer for our marriage for this decision of what to do next and that we would trust God through it all, that we would continue to, yeah, lean on Him and try not to fix it ourselves, especially me. Pray that I would lean or if you guys could pray that I would lean on to God in this season and not my own strength that would be…that would be very appreciated. Love you guys. Have not stop listening. Listen every day. I’ve been on Daily Audio Bible app for about a year and some change and really appreciate the community. But yeah, if you could just please lift us up in prayer. We have to make a decision soon as to what to do next. It’s a long couple months ahead of us as we do this new treatment and pray that we would persevere in the Lord. Thanks guys. Bye.

Hi DAB family this is Caitlin. I was calling it to ask for prayer because on Wednesday this week my husband of seven years, we’ve been together 10 years, he asked me for a divorce, and I am more devastated than I can even put into words for it. I’ve been praying for over 2 years that God would do a miracle in our marriage, but my husband just is not willing to let God work in it. And we have 4 kids. We have two five-year-old’s a 3-year-old and a s7-month-old and this is going to be really hard for them. So, I just ask for prayer for my babies and prayer for me as I’m grieving this tremendous loss and that I would just be able to cling to Jesus moving forward and know that the God of comfort is with me and close to the broken hearted. And I just pray He guards the hearts of my children and makes this be as smooth and peaceful as possible. I can already see Him working in it but also, I’m so sad. Yeah, I would just really appreciate your prayers.

Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20, Luke 11:37-12:7, Psalms 78:1-31, Proverbs 12:19-20

Today is April 6^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue moving into this month. And there’s a lot going on in the first part of this month, right? We move into the fourth month and then we had Good Friday and Easter. And, so, we’re just kinda moving just a couple of days from there. So, just getting settled into the month of April, a month where the seasons change. And here in the northern hemisphere where I live in the United States in the rolling hills of Tennessee, new life begins to spring forth for sure, in earnest. And, so, that’s where we find ourselves, I guess in the year. In the Bible we find ourselves in the book of Deuteronomy, which is the last book of the Torah or the Pentateuch and we are nearing the last part of that book. We will finish that book this…well…at the end of this week. So, let’s dive in and listen to what Moses continues to say, how he continues to present who the people are, where they’ve come from, who God is and where they’re going lest they ever forget so that Moses departs history knowing that…that on his watch, his conscience is clear. Today, Deuteronomy chapters 29 and 30.

Commentary:

Okay. We need to talk about some things from the Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy and from the gospel of Luke as well because they…they both…like right in our face today offering us the chance to examine ourselves. So…so, in the book of Deuteronomy Moses is…is kind of reaching the conclusion of the things that he has to say. And we know this. We’ve said it a bunch of times this is the last things that he does have to say. And, so, as he’s sort of reaching a bit of a crescendo, he says words to the people, but these words aren’t only just for those people they are for future generations and they still apply. And, so, these are Moses words. “This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach. It’s not in heaven, so that somebody has”…and I’m paraphrasing here…”so that somebody has to go up to heaven and get. It’s not on the other side of the sea so that somebody has to travel to the other side of the sea to get it. The message is very near you. It’s in your mouth, it’s your hearts so that you can follow it. So, see today I have set before you, life and prosperity and death and adversity. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set it before you, life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Love the Lord your God and obey Him and remain faithful to Him, for He is your life, and He will prolong your days as you live in the land.” So, like there’s all kinds of things we could talk about but can we just make it simple. This is your choice. Okay. You have a choice and it’s not too hard. Choose to live. And we make that choice by being obedient, by following the path, the…the narrow path that leads to life. That’s the way Jesus will describe it. That is the objective here, that we love God with all of our heart, and that we love each other as ourselves.

When we turn to the gospel of Luke and come back alongside Jesus He is having a confrontation with the religious leaders, the people responsible for what we just said, the people that are responsible to remind everybody to choose life and to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves. These are the people that oppose Jesus. These are the people Jesus opposes because He opposes what they’re doing. These are the religious instructors and leaders. These are the people that think they have it figured out. These are the people who think they can speak on behalf of God and control the people while doing it. I mean there’s a lot of parallels, there’s just a lot of things that still are in the world today that Jesus would probably oppose in the same way. And what is He ultimately upset about? He’s upset that the people are being deceived and led astray. And He…He’s exasperated with the hypocrisy of it. And, so, I quote again from the Scriptures, this time from the lips of Jesus instead of Moses, “woe to you Pharisees, you give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others.” In other words, you’re giving and denying justice at the same time. How’s that gonna work out? Then He goes on. “Woe to you Pharisees, you love the front seat in the synagogue and the greetings in the marketplace.” In other words, you love to be seen. You love to be acknowledged for your position, but you are not obedient to your position. You are not doing what you were ordained or commissioned to do. You’re like unmarked graves. People could walk over it and not even know. So, at this point…point in the story, there’s like a scribe, an expert in the law, a teacher of the law who’s was like, “you know, when you say this stuff that’s kind of offensive to us too.” And, so, he’s just…he just goes there. “Woe to you experts, you people that think you’ve got it all figured out a know it. Woe to you. You are loading the people with burdens that are hard to carry and you’re not willing to carry your own burden, not even with one of your fingers. You’ve taken away the key to knowledge. You didn’t go in and you hindered everyone else from trying to go in.” Okay. We can read that and we can see Jesus confrontation with the religious leaders and we can just kind of like offset them as the antagonistic people in the story or we can understand like this is an opportunity to look in the mirror. How much do we flaunt our religion? Being an expert? Knowing everything? Throwing versus at people to…to control them in some way or another? Throwing versus at people to be right? Posting things to be right? Like our heart isn’t after redemption at all. It’s to be right and to be seen. If that strikes, like if that lands anywhere near home then we need to understand that hard as that might be to swallow, we’re looking an awful lot like a Pharisee. But we have a choice. We get to collaborate. We get to participate.

And the call today coming out of the book of Deuteronomy is that we choose to live, that we choose life, that we choose this narrow path that leads to life, that we understand there is only one source of life. And, so, there is only one place to go for life. If we could get…get that to land, then maybe we could shift our orientation and understand that running hard after God is the only option to live. Everything else is us trying to be our own sovereign, and how…like…like when we learn our lesson? Like, how many walls do we have to hit? How many pits do we have to fall into? When do we learn this? What would be the downside of going for it? What would be the downside of saying, “that’s it, nothing else will distract me, I will not turn to the right or the left. I will love the Lord my God with all of my heart. And in the process, I will love everyone around me as He does because this isn’t my story to tell. I’m a part of something greater and when my chapters told, I want my chapter to read that I was deeply in love with my Father, and we shared a grand adventure together.

Prayer:

Father, we enter into these things. These…these things are actually pretty probing and…and convicting even. They bring us to a point of consideration, and we invite Your Holy Spirit into these things so that we might repent, so that we might change, change our minds and move in a different direction, one that seeks after You and only You, knowing You are the source of life itself. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, and it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And there’s always something or another.

The Community section is where you find the Prayer Wall that we speak of often. There’s always prayer happening there, always the links to the different social media channels etc. are there. So, check it out.

The resources are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop and check that out. There are different categories.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is the link that lives on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement there are a number of numbers that you can dial. But first, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the red button up at the top in the app that looks like a button, the red one, a hotline button. You can press that and share from anywhere in the world. If you are preferring to use the dial, like the telephone, in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey, it’s Corey up in __ I just finished listening to the DAB today and man I'm…I…I’m in a good mood. Beloved I think it is in Texas, your call about messing yourself it brought some very needed laughs to me. I was on my way to work and I am in tears laughing at that one, laughing with you not at you. It’s been the hardest stretch lately for me and my family and, woah, that one lifted my spirits today on the way to work. So, I appreciate your vulnerability and honesty. That was awesome. Hilarious. So, thank you for your call. I just appreciate you. Alright guys. Thanks. Bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Renzo from Florida. I just want to pray for this lady that called up about her son Micah that is just struggling. He doesn’t know You Lord and is not a believer. I just want to pray for him. Father God I just thank You for everything that You give to us Lord. I thank You for the ability to just pray for people that are in this Daily Audio Bible community, Lord. And just please just help Micah to just accept You as Your Lord and savior. Please help him accept You as Lord and we just thank You for everything You do Lord. Thank You for sending Your son down on the cross for us. Thank You, Jesus for everything You do for us. And just please just help his mom just keep praying for him and trusting in the Lord. And please help them to just have faith that surpasses all understanding. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Jesus loves you guys. I’m praying for you guys. God bless.

Happy Good Friday DABbers this is Colette calling from California I hope that your day is going as well as it could be knowing that our Lord and savior Jesus Christ gave up His life so that we could have life. I’d like to make a comment regarding the sister who shared the funny story with us of her sitting on a zoom call and thinking that she was quietly just going to express herself and ended up sitting in her own mess. At the risk of spiritualizing that scenario some things did occur to me, that there were some biblical principles in that and there are oftentimes we are making decisions and we end up sitting in our own mess because we did not consult the Lord. Something as simple as, “well I’m not going to claim that on my taxes” and then we get audited and end up sitting in our own mess. “O I think I’ll just date him I know he doesn’t know the Lord and I know about you know being unequally yoked, but I think it’ll be OK” and it blows up in our faces. So, we end up doing what? Sitting in our own mess. I’m sure each of you can think about a scenario where you made your own decision outside of Gods, you know, principles and values and we end up sitting in our own mess. So, thank you sister for sharing that story. I did get quite a giggle out of it and certainly brought to mind a lot of lessons as well. God bless everyone.

Hey DAB family this is Brookie 545 I’m just calling to pray for some people from April 3^rd. Victoria Soldier we just continue to lift up your sister-in-law who’s in the hospital for healing and your nephew who’s in jail. Lord we ask that You just unite this family and just create a peace and just Your serenity over this time. Lord we just pray for repentance where it needs to be in her nephew and we just ask for her sister-in-law just to trust You Lord with her son’s life. And we lift up Victor to You, Delta Alpha Foxtrots friend who is in the hospital suffering from covid who just went into incubation. Lord You are the ultimate healer. Holy Spirit just guide the doctors with wisdom and knowledge. Give peace to the family. God we are just asking for a miracle that this man walks out of the hospital healthy and alive. Lord I also lift up sparky from Texas to You and praise God that they found out why he was depressed, the testosterone levels. God I just pray that You give the doctors wisdom and knowledge to find the correct treatment, to correct his depression and whatever else is ailing. And Lord I just thank You that his family has been so supportive. Lord we just trust You going forward in this process and again I just praise You for those answers. And God I also lift up Mattie to You. I thank You that she is so focused and wanting to persevere in school and work with this new job. God I just ask that You give her calmness, peace, wisdom, perseverance and just trust in You that You are going to work all things for good. I pray that You bring the right people in her life to come alongside her in this time, that You give her good community and we just trust You in the process. Amen.

Good morning this is Donna from California and I woke up with Mommy’s Little Rock from Arkansas on my mind this morning. You had called in on April 1^st lost your mom a few months ago, your beloved mom. I’m so sorry for your loss. I was reminded though of the passage in scripture about when Jesus was on the cross. I’ll just read it. It’s so beautiful and it’s a very good day to be reading it it’s Holy Saturday. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple who he loved standing nearby he said to her, woman here is your son and to the disciple here is your mother. From that time on this disciple took her into his home. And you know, you’ve got…we are all your mom, where all your mom’s here and we’ll never take the place of your own mom, your…your flesh and blood mom but we are all each others…we all belong to each other and I just wanted to reach out to you and tell you that that’s the beauty of…of being a part of a community such as this. We…we have sons and daughters, we have moms, we have dads, we have brothers and sisters. It’s a big family. It’s a wonderful family. And I just…I send you a great big hug. The other thing I would encourage is, I don’t know if you have earthly children, but you do have children here. Reach out to them too. Be the mom for them. And I hope you have a beautiful resurrection day.

Deuteronomy 28:1-68, Luke 11:14-36, Psalms 77:1-20, Proverbs 12:18

Today is the 5^th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue to move forward. And still kind of in this Easter glow, this whole season that leads up to this moment where we really live into all things being made new, and that actually a shift has happened. And, so, now we live into that. All that we’ve allowed the Lord to rearrange in our hearts and minds and lives, we move forward from this place with a newness, with a new sense of direction and purpose. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. And we are continuing our journey through the book of Deuteronomy. That will take us…I think that will take us the remainder of this week to conclude. And just start remembering that this is what Moses has to say. And some of this is review because he’s reviewing. These are the things that he has to say before he dies. This is what he’s saying to the people that he’s led out of Egypt and that they need to remember when he’s gone. So, we pick up. Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s just consider what we read in the book of Proverbs, very short, a single sentence. “There is one who speaks rashly like a piercing sword.” So, let’s stop there for second. “Speaks rashly.” We are all guilty, right? We are all guilty of at some point speaking rationally, right, without thinking about what we’re saying, without considering the consequences of what we might be saying. This seems to be a thing and going around and we…it’s just like part of the human condition. We do this stuff all the time, but wisdom in the Proverbs is saying that's…that’s like a piercing sword. So, if we stop thinking about the things that we say, and then put ourselves in the position of things that are being said to us, when somebody’s speaking aggressively and rationally without considering the consequences toward us, attacking us in some way it does feel like that, right, a piercing sword. This theme is throughout the Scriptures, the fact that words actually do matter, that they’re not harmless, that they’re not benign, that they sort of set the stage for what’s gonna happen in action. So, I don’t know, let’s…two…two men walking down the street, they don’t just randomly decide to start punching each other, right? They’re just walking down the street. They don’t even know each other. If they do, they don’t have an offense against each other, they’re just walking down the street. But when someone says something rash to the other like a piercing sword then action can take place that can be profoundly destructive. So, that happens between two people. I mean we can take this inside our house with our spouse, and apply it there and understand that the same truth applies between two people, but that same truth expands to all people. And, so, groups of people can be behaving this way toward other groups of people. And all we gotta do is start opening up the human…the history books of humanity to see where this goes. So, wisdom tells us, yeah, there…there is one who speaks rashly, and they speak like…like a piercing sword but the tongue of the wise brings healing. So, that’s one sentence. And that one sentence says an awful lot about our lives, about the state of our lives, about the trajectory of our lives because we basically have a rutter that lives behind our teeth that steers the way our lives go. And it’s not inconsequential and it’s not harmless, it’s very powerful. In fact, the Scriptures will ultimately tell us as we get a little bit deeper into them that the power of life and death is in our words, is in the tongue. It’s famous so we probably already know that. But if it’s true let’s just think for a second that the power of life and death is in the tongue. Why do we not pay attention to the kind of power we’re carrying around all day every day? Like, how is it that that power can be unleashed typically for destruction before we can even rein it in? Maybe wisdom would call us to pay attention. Maybe wisdom would call us to bring healing with our tongues instead of destruction, blessing instead of cursing. Maybe that would change our life. Maybe we don’t have to say maybe. That would change our whole life. Do we want that? That would require discipline then wouldn’t it? That would require surrender. That would require that we’re not trying to insulate to protect ourselves, but rather we are surrendered to God and we are relying on Him to protect us. We don’t have to carve out anything against anybody to have an identity.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. This is so profound. This wisdom is so profound that it would change our lives if we would listen. Holy Spirit help us to remember. Holy Spirit help us to listen before we speak. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Man, what a…what a season we’ve been through celebrating Easter and Holy Week last week and…ahhh…it’s a joy just to…just to remember all things are being made new.

And, so, that’s one thing that should continue to reverberate in and among us in around here, but this is also where to find how to get connected, like Community section of the website or for that matter of the app, will lead you to the Prayer Wall and different links to get connected.

And then there’s the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there that were made for this journey for this journey. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DAB family my name is Jermaine and I’m incarcerated, and I listen to you guys daily basically. I wake up with you guys on my mind and I just pray for you guys and I keep you guys in my mind all the time. And I just want to thank the…I just want to thank Brian and this DAB family for so much encouragement and for so much encouragement and so much prayer. I am literally on a jail call right now leaving this message because the spirit has helped me to pick the phone up to have my loving cousin who is on the end of this phone call but Lord, I’m calling for a prayer request. I’m calling that I be strengthened, that I’m being strengthened in this kind time of darkness, that I know that the Lord works all things, that God works ways out of no way. You see for Him to give me the revelation to keep Him in my heart, to keep Him on my mind, to always seek Him, to want better…Lord…Lord I just I need…I need you guys to pray for me, I need these prayers, I need these prayers because I know in my mind no matter what I go through and no matter what God puts me through that He will take me through. I know He will because I serve a good God. I serve a loving God, a God over all things, a God that created all things. So, DAB family I need your prayers and I'm…I’m praying for each and every last one of you as I listen to this because I have so much time in the world right now being in prison. I'm…I’m Jermaine and I’m calling from Rochester NY. I’m incrassated in the Monroe County facility. And, Oh my God it’s just it’s so amazing what Brian and the Hardin family is doing and it's…it’s just so wonderful that God’s using all of you guys as vessels…

Hi DAB family this is Susie from Colorado. I love you guys. I pray for you every day. You’re my family. I just cannot tell you how much I adore this family and Brian and his family. I need prayer please. My husband and I have orphanages in Haiti. We…we raise the children. We don’t send them out for adoptions. We…most of our children are disabled or very, very sick. And sometimes they get well. I’ve seen so many miracles. But we have just taken in the last few days a little boy that we named Elijah and he has hydro cephalic syndrome and I’m devastated because I’m being told that now it’s inoperable and he will soon go blind and then lose any ability to eat on his own or even think on his own and that his brain will slowly die. I come against this. I…I don't…I'm…I’m not accepting that. That’s what, you know, what man says. But I’m just really praying to God, He would intervene this time for Elijah seven months old like He has so many times. I have witnessed babies being told that we…we…we were…they wouldn’t live to be six months old, and they lived to be…some of them are 29 years old now. So, I just don’t believe that. And I know it’s all because of prayer. So, please pray for my husband and I and for this very large family that we have in Haiti. Please pray for Elijah. Please save his brain and his life. In Jesus’ name.

Hi there, DAB this is Vonnie from Northern California and I’m responding to a couple of calls I heard this morning. It’s April 1^st and mommy’s Little Rock, I am so sorry that you lost your mom. It’s so hard to lose a mom. I lost mine almost a couple years ago now. There’s nothing like a mother’s love and no one can replace your mom but it’s good to know that there are others praying for you. And I’m praying that the Lord will bring just loads of comfort and peace and encouragement your way. Please finish your book. Please get back to writing. And I pray for motivation. That book is going to bless people. Do it for your mom’s sake to honor her. And I pray that you will just sense God’s love and comforting arms around you. But on the heels of that call, oh Beloved in Texas you just cracked me up. And there’s a sermon illustration in that story even though it was just so funny. It’s great to laugh at ourselves. But how often do we sit in our own mess and just look good on the outside and pretend everything’s OK. I do that. I sit in my own mess and pretend everything’s OK. But when we confess to one another our need it’s great to have others pray for us and get cleaned up. And, so, thank you for sharing that story. It made me laugh today but thank you for everybody for sharing your stories. We really do need to pray for one another, that the Lord will really clean us. Every…every day is new. Blessings everybody. Have a good one. Bye-bye.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is James the teacher in LA. I have the heaviest heart in the world. I know I called in a couple weeks ago after not really being a part of the community for maybe two or three years. I lost track but I had said that my wife and I were going through a really hard time. In the meantime, she asked for a two-week separation during a session of couples counseling. And at the end of that two weeks, she said that she…her mind was made up where she wants a divorce. And even saying the words out loud…I’ve been mulling it over and talking about it with people since Saturday the 22^nd. And I’m still devastated. It was facing my own suicidal thoughts that first drove me to Jesus over 20 years ago. There’s been one other time since then when my life was so low that I considered it. But I’ve hit that spot again worse than ever in my whole life and I’m talking with my therapist and I have a safety plan for those of you have been through losing someone to suicide, so I don’t want to scare anybody, but…but my whole life is just in flames. So, I’m praying for my children. And I still love my wife even when I’m angry…so angry. Please pray for me. Thanks.

Mommy’s Little Rock in Arkansas this is God’s Life Speaker. I too lost my mom on the 1^st of January and I heard you, not only this year when you had called in about your mom. I definitely know how you feel. I too am writing, and my mom was the center of all things. Someone to bounce everything off of but she is in a much better place for my mom really suffered in the end. And, so, I am grateful. I am sure you are too, that they are in the presence of Jesus. But that doesn’t make our earthly walk any easier. The only place we really have to turn is to God. And I know you know that as you turned to this family to pray for you. Psalm 73:26 says. “my flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” So, mommy’s Little Rock in Arkansas because you are a rock. I’ve heard you call in and you are a joy raising your kids the right way. I know your mom taught you right and you will pass that on. Keep her alive with her kids. So, may the Lord bless you, may the Lord keep you, may the Lord make His face shine upon you Mommy’s Little Rock in Arkansas and may he be gracious to you. May He give you peace in the name of Jesus Mommy’s Little Rock in Arkansas. Lord God rise up. Joy up. Speak life. Keep your mom alive through all the stories you have to share. God bless you Mommy’s Little Rock.